# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/wafaa-bilal
# Generated: 2026-08-13T23:41:03.490Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/wafaa-bilal"
name: "Wafaa Bilal"
slug: "wafaa-bilal"
description: "Dr. Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi American artist, a former professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently an art professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He is a Creative Capital Award winner in 2021 for his project In a Grain of Wheat: Cultivating Hybrid Futures in Ancient Seed DNA and named one of Foreign Policy magazine's Leading 100 Global Thinkers in 2016 for his work as an advocate. Bilal's work, Canto III, was included as part of the Iranian pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Bilal's current work 168:01 brings awareness to cultural destruction and promotes the collective healing process through education and audience participation. He is best known for his work, Domestic Tension, a performance piece in which he lived in a gallery for a month and was shot by paintballs remotely by internet users watching from a webcam and for his book, Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life, and Resistance under the Gun, based on that performance, which details the horrors of living in a conflict zone and growing up under Saddam Hussein's regime. He holds a BFA from the University of New Mexico, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was conferred an honorary Ph.D. from DePauw University."
tagline: "American artist"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Wafaa-bilal2.JPG?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Artists"
  slug: "artists"
profileType:
  name: "Artist"
  slug: "artist"
birthDate: "1966-06-10"
livingStatus: "LIVING"
scores:
  popularity:           44.79
  momentum:             5.88235294117647
  historical:           8.280382666666666
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     55.00000000000001
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
platforms:
  - platform:  "WEBSITE"
    url:       "http://wafaabilal.com/"
sources:
  - url: "https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%84%D0%B0%D0%B0_%D0%91%D1%96%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BB"
    title: "Вафаа Білал"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%A1_%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84"
    title: "وفاء بلال"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%A7_%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84"
    title: "وافا بيلال"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wafaa_Bilal"
    title: "Wafaa Bilal"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wafaa_Bilal"
    title: "Wafaa Bilal"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wafaa_Bilal"
    title: "Wafaa Bilal"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%81%D8%A7_%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84"
    title: "وفا بلال"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%99%80%ED%8C%8C_%EB%B9%8C%EB%9E%84"
    title: "와파 빌랄"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BB%2C_%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%84%D0%B0%D0%B0"
    title: "Билал, Вафаа"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2538848"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump